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Because user buy-in is the key to blockchain success
The use of the Blockchain is growing in many sectors, especially in the government. The Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency is examining the security challenges resulting from the adoption of technology to prepare to meet these challenges as they are put into use. Since blockchain becomes a common term in all governmental, financial, energy, and commercial sectors, how can emergent use cases be implemented in each of these industries? How can a case of proof of concept be used as a viable solution? Since the need for information and the opportunity for implementation increase in the government, the answer lies within the organization and its people.
Blockchain, a distributed digital ledger, should not be seen as just an application, a database, a back-end solution, or an architectural background piece. It is a fundamental technology, which means that it is not a "program" installed on the computer or device that, by itself, solves all organizational problems. Blockchain offers the possibility to connect disparate systems within the organizational IT infrastructure, using technologies such as artificial intelligence, automation of robotic processes and automatic learning to solve a concrete business problem. Blockchain not only expands the realm of solutions, but shifts the paradigm of which solutions are possible.
However, none of this can be achieved without a critical factor: the adoption by internal users.
An organization can not solve any business challenge or start implementing a blockchain vision unless employees understand and understand the impact it will have on them, the entire organization and its processes business. This requires a strategy on how to create the best user-centered design so that they can adopt the system and solve a business challenge.
Working for users
Often, whether it is media, industry events or other outlets, blockchain is presented as a "magic pill". There is talk of an operating system that you can install on your computer with a mouse click or touch the screen. In reality, technology and its true value are much deeper and connected with engineering and / or the design of key business processes.
Naturally, the blockchain can be deceptively simple on the surface. You could even create a blockchain in a Microsoft Excel spreadsheet. But creating something truly revolutionary to solve business and organizational challenges requires more than just a ledger.
To reach its desired potential, users must understand the planned blockchain solution. To do this, they need to experience it as it is created. Based on our practical blockchain implementations, we have outlined the following as a high-level guideline to collaborate with end users:
- Identify a business problem. Engage with potential blockchain users to discover their current bottlenecks or extremely manual processes, using man-centered design. Users are good at hearing about their problems, but they may not have clear solutions in their head. Man-centered design provides information on how the future state solution should be designed to address urgent challenges: not to recreate the existing process, but to perform a profound corporate and digital transformation. As an example, think about how Uber created a business transformation model in contrast to an auxiliary taxi application trying to imitate an existing business process.
- It starts with a simple and intuitive interface designed with the ease of first-line use and the user at the center.
- Use rapid prototyping to ensure that the right design is created to support the process or business changes that Blockchain can make to users. Users do not care about what's working under the hood (eg, Ethereum, Hyperledger, Ripple), they want to clearly see and understand new possibilities that are now open to them. This will also help to speed up adoption.
- Account for the change of culture. Blockchain is best built using incremental development and agile principles / basic DevOps. Blockchain will allow users to adapt their business processes and offer the opportunity to drop out of time-consuming manual tasks.
In our work with the US government specific to the public procurement process (the first public or private project in the world to make the blockchain for procurement operational), we quickly saw how users' eyes opened when they understood and started to see the possibilities of the Blockchain.
For example, one of the most critical procurement documents, the pre-trade note, was once a labor-intensive process that required agents to verify, cut, paste and format content from more than 10 different sources in a & # 39; only position. Now the system can automatically take the necessary content from various sources to generate the pre-trade memorandum without employee intervention.
Users at the center of implementation
Blockchain's implementation challenges eventually fall into three areas when it comes to users: front-end design, user buy-in and organizational impact. From a front-end perspective, blockchain is not typically a visible technology for people. If agencies or companies do not integrate the blockchain into their business processes and if users do not understand it, the implementation might seem to rebuild an existing system by repainting its color from red to blue.
Likewise, employees must also purchase the rest. Change management could be a significant obstacle as roles will need to change with improvements to previous business processes. Ultimately, the impact of the Blockchain throughout the organization, including the user's understanding, will determine its effectiveness as a technology that transforms the way the government interacts with its citizens, businesses with their customers or organizations with other organizations and third parties.
The architecture of Blockchain intrinsically points to open source and can bring together different standards, systems and users. When you start using it, keep this flexibility instead of using proprietary or complex data sets that could minimize the adoption, effectiveness, and value of blockchain users from a cost point of view.
In conclusion, users can not be with you for landing if they were not with you during take-off. They are an integral part of success and the blockchain should be understood not as a simple back-end project, but as a tool for the transformation and change of paradigm of business processes.
